The Broken Cortex Event
The single event that changed the face of Global Cortex the most, the Broken Cortex Event of 506 AF was an all out war within the corporation that saw the complete destruction of a dozen colonies, and countless others scarred by the fighting. The center of the war was the allegiance of the Pilots themselves, with many of them swearing allegiance to the former 1st rank pilot, Berlioz. There is still much debate as to why Berlioz declared himself seperate from Global Cortex, but what is known is the drastic effect it had on the community of Pilots. Before the Broken Cortex Event, Global Cortex had relatively little in terms of restrictions on arena fighters, allowing anyone with the skill to not only hold the title of 1st rank, but to dictate the minor laws of the corporation itself. Such an imbalance allowed the strongest to keep a hold on their title, placing them in the position to direct their competition to missions that would prove fatal. Occurances like that happened numerous times, especially during the one-hundred year reign of Seraph between 13 AF and 113 AF when the schizophrenic pilot executed numerous pilots for failing to succeed in missions purposefully drawn against them. Rise of Berlioz In 427 AF one of the greatest pilots of the age rose to prominence, defeating the previous arena champion, Mobius, in single combat. This man was a pilot of just one-hundred years old, a relatively young age for a master of the arena, and his name was Berlioz. With his victory a number of sweeping changes were made to the Global Cortex command structure, some of which still remain to this day, and gone was the ability of the 1st rank to dictate dispatch of pilots. His victory was controversial for more than political reasons though, for he was known for using unsafe cybernetics, many of which had been on the brink of experimental, all of which could have contributed to his later fall. Part of his victory though, was the tutoring of a new generation of pilots, a way to cement his rank through admiration, rather than attrition. As the years passed, dozens of pilots were trained by him into top-tier pilots, foremost among them, the woman known as Solstice and her machine Equinox. Despite her natural ability with machines, Equinox was an older machine, and belligerent in nature, often thwarting her matches. Berlioz stepped in and trained her to become one with the belligerent engine, showing her the finer points of being a pilot. The Fall of Berlioz In 480 AF the Arena saw an odd shift in Berlioz's behavior. Where before he had frequently engaged in "Show matches" with his partner Solstice, his matches began to turn more and more violent, with some feeling that his grip on sanity was slipping. As sides began to form in Global Cortex's pilot community, the corporation as a whole started to withdraw from public, choosing to resolve these problems internally. The final blow seemed to fall when Berlioz ruthlessly executed a fellow pilot in the Arena, ripping the man's machine limb from limb while the pilot was still inside. More disturbing than the action itself, was that Berlioz seemed to not understand what he had done, starting with commanding the pilot to stand, and eventually realizing that he had slaughtered a fellow pilot. The few remaining pilots from the event recall that all they could hear from Berlioz was him repeating "I am human! I am not a machine!" through heavy sobs. With the year 506 AF drawing to a close, Berlioz fled the blood and oil-drenched arena, declaring himself and any who would follow him seperate from Global Cortex. Chaos ensued as the entire community was at each other's throats, declaring any who sided against them an enemy. Pilot fought Pilot across countless colony worlds, causing untold destruction among inhabited cities, mining outposts, and even military bases. Berlioz himself fought across a hundred worlds, killing every pilot who dared to look upon him and the machine he piloted, Equinox. With their backs against the wall, the last remnants of Global Cortex's command structure dispatched the only pilot capable of defeating the renegade Berlioz and bringing the errant pilots back into the corporation. Solstice departed from Mars to face down Berlioz on the space-station New Deimos of Xiost, where the Arena had been held since the foundation of Global Cortex. Few accurate records of the event exist, as Solstice herself has sworn a vow of silence on the matter, and the former CEOs of Global Cortex during that time have already passed. The most widely accepted account is that Solstice and Berlioz fought for seven straight days, neither of them gaining the upperhand, and the entire station exploding around them. The station's destruction would have claimed both of them had not Berlioz left himself open for Solstice to land a cockpit blow that ended his life. Of course, only Solstice knows what truly happened, and the lack of any physical evidence leaves many to believe that Berlioz perished either by Solstice's blade, or by the station's destruction and incineration in Xiost's atmosphere. Post Broken Cortex Event With Global Cortex left shattered and disorganized, many of the remaining pilots looked to Solstice for leadership, but she had disappeared, declaring medical rest. With Global Cortex corporate left to reorganize, many of the staples of Arena combat had to be changed, in order that such an event could never happen again. Despite their massive losses, and the need to reorganize literally their entire corporate structure, nearly every pilot stands in agreement that a pilot of Berlioz's skill is needed to restore what he had destroyed. Nearly a thousand years have passed since the event, leaving Cortex a shadow of it's pre-Broken Cortex strength and frequently on the verge of being merged with UNISEC. Only two thousand of the former fifteen-thousand pilots survived the event, and the number of pilots has never reached beyond that point since. Category:Global Cortex